Dependence of snake body temperature on the environment

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

All animals can be divided into three groups: homoiothermic (or warm-blooded), poikilothermic (or cold-blooded), heterothermal.

Warm-blooded are humans, mammals and birds. Due to their high metabolic rate and thermal insulation (due to wool, for example), they have a constant body temperature that is minimally affected by climatic changes in the environment.

Heterothermal animals in the composition of warm-blooded animals during periods of torpor or hibernation do not have a constant body temperature, in contrast to the period of activity (bears, rodents, bats).

Snakes and other reptiles (reptiles), along with fish and amphibians, are cold-blooded animals. Their direct activity is influenced by the ambient temperature. For example, the body temperature of a snake is 1-2 degrees higher or equal to it. What factors have the greatest influence on this indicator?

Climatic zone

In areas located in temperate latitudes, where the annual change of seasons occurs, reptiles fall into a stupor during the cold period. The further north isclimate zone, the shorter the moments of summer activity. This is because it is more difficult to maintain a high body temperature in this way.

The climatic zone of the habitat zone also affects the daily activity of reptiles. In early spring, they are active during the day, in the middle of summer - in the mornings and in the late afternoon, if we talk about diurnal animals.

The body temperature of a snake or lizard is also affected by weather conditions in a particular season in a particular area. If in the Caucasus or in Central Asia a thaw occurs for several days in winter, then you can meet, for example, muzzle (his photo is posted in the article). And living in warm human buildings, agamas do not fall into winter stupor at all.

Day and night

The body temperature of a snake and lizard is directly affected by the time of day.

Night reptiles use the soil's ability to retain daytime heat. The night hunter skink gecko (pictured above) occasionally burrows into warm sand to stay active. A diurnal animal is a round-eared lizard; at night it may not return to the hole, but burrow into the sand until morning.

Sun

Infrared radiation (that is, the transfer of heat without direct contact with the source) from the sun has a huge impact on reptiles. For temperate latitudes, the following behavior of reptiles is very characteristic: they crawl out to bask in the sun or heat from the impact of its rays on a stone. Thanks to this adaptivedevice, the body temperature of a snake on a sunny day can be 10-15 degrees higher than the ground surface.

It is noteworthy that to the south or in the mountains, sand, stones heated by the sun can not only warm, but also kill the animal. Therefore, reptiles use different adaptation mechanisms to avoid overheating. The lizards have adapted to walk on a hot surface with their tail up, their bodies raised as much as possible, walking “on their toes” and throwing their paws high at a step.

Snakes are more active at night when the hot period sets in. For example, gyurza is one of the most dangerous snakes in the viper family; in the spring, after coming out of hibernation, it leads a daytime lifestyle, hunts and lays eggs, and by the summer it becomes less active and prefers night wakefulness. A lot of activity in the spring is associated with the hunger of the animal after hibernation, which drives the snake to hunt.

Digestion

If a hungry snake hunts at low temperatures, then after catching and swallowing prey, it can digest food for several days. Even if it is warm enough, it takes a long time. This factor remains decisive: changes in the body temperature of the snake and the life of the animal itself depend entirely on the climate - if it is too cold, the snake will not be able to digest food and will die. The work of the digestive system in reptiles depends on the ambient temperature.

Breathing

Respiratory rate also indirectly affects the body temperature of the animal. Fence iguanas, nicknamedso for the love of crawling out during the day to warm up higher and therefore often found on fences, when the ambient temperature rises, they breathe one and a half times more often.

Leather

The stratum corneum forms scales, shields or plates, perfectly protects against moisture evaporation and damage, but does not breathe and does not participate in heat transfer processes or the removal of metabolic products, unlike the physiological characteristics of warm-blooded animals. In the process of evolution, glands in the skin of reptiles have practically not been preserved, with the exception of a few that secrete odorous secrets for chemical signaling, for example, attracting the opposite sex during the mating season or marking territory.

The body temperature of snakes is most associated with active adaptation to environmental conditions, the search for a warm or cool place, and their habitats are overwhelmingly located in warm climatic zones. Although some mechanisms of thermoregulation of reptiles are more perfect than those of amphibians. And the snake's body temperature is less dependent on the environment than, for example, lizards.